The beacon inside the Rainjaw's jaw did not command the animal, which took Vell most of an hour to establish. It marked the animal, so that whatever moved through Ruinwood could tell a tagged predator from an untagged one.
Marking is cheaper than commanding, since a marked animal still hunts on its own schedule. The station only had to make the hunting happen in useful places, and useful places had been chosen nine days ago.
"They herd," Yenna said, following the logic across his slate, "the way a bad shepherd herds, by making everywhere else worse."
That explained the poisoned basin, the seeded crab swarm, and an apex walking downhill toward a lit furnace. It also explained why the trial's avoidance zones sat precisely where the judges had refused to send anybody.
Vell put Analyze across the pattern for the ninth time and finally found the part he had missed. The transmitter answered a station, though it also answered every other transmitter carrying the same field signature.
